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PERFORMANCE OF MIXED AND SPECIALIZED FARMING IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN LATVIA
Abstract
In the context of climate change and sustainable development, the discussion has been raised in the society about the long-term benefits and possible losses of different farming types. In the discussions about the future of the CAP, it has been stressed that tackling climate change and preserving the environment is the most serious challenge facing the EU, and the CAP must help by setting new goals to ensure that EU farming contributes meeting the international commitments on sustainability. The paper deals with the changes in farming types and the results of this process in Latvian agriculture since 2000. The analysis reveals that the development process of Latvian agriculture is dominated by the specialization strategy, the implementation of which is based on the increase in production volume, technological modernization and the concentration of an activity in a certain sector, and the economic benefits of which are justified by the economy of scale and the possibility to significantly increase the productivity of production factors, especially labour productivity. If mixed farming was characteristic to 53% of farms in Latvia in 2000, which utilized about 50% of agricultural area and employed 62% of total labour force, then, in 2016, mixed farming accounted only for 23% of the total number of farms, having 19% of the utilized agricultural area and 26% of labour force. There are clear economic benefits in terms of net value added per employed person in field crop specialization farms, which is the main specialization type in Latvia nowadays; however, the same farms also create much larger environmental burden in terms of the inputs per utilized agricultural area than mixed farms in Latvia. In the context of increased focus on sustainability, mixed farms can be an alternative for specialization, but with the understanding of their viability under different farming circumstances and models.
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